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High fat low carb or low fat moderate carb (50-150g)

07-02-2013, 05:51 PM

I've been eating primal for a while now and I have lost weight but have stalled. I've been eating a high fat, low carb about 100g and moderate protein. I've been feeling a little sluggish and energy levels are just too low. Sex drive down. I wanted to try upping my carbs and lowering my fats. Will I gain weight with a lower day higher carb diet. I do workout 4x a week with weights but I just can't do it anymore. When I eat fruit, I bloat, when ever I eat sweet potatoe or rice I get sleepy. I'm having a tough time and would really appreciate your input!

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You might gain a little water weight with the carbs at first but that's nothing to worry about. Like Neckhammer said, you might just need to eat more food, especially if you feel really sluggish. Taking a digestive enzyme blend will help with the bloating, especially if you have been low carb.

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Thanks for your help. I've been primal for about 1 year. I lost about 15lbs and have about another 10lbs to go. No dairy, grains, legumes. I've been eating a lot of green veggies, chicken, turkey, salmon with about 4 tablespoons of coconut oil. Very little fruit also.

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Does eating more whole foods mean veggies, white rice, potatoes, fruit along with a good amount of butter, coconut oil , and almond butter ?? Or do I need to cut my fat to about 60g bc of increase in carbs?

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If all you have left to lose is 10 pounds then your getting down to what I would consider "vanity" weight. I like to intermittent fast and find my sex drive and everything really peaks near the end of my fast. Maybe try some of that. You could try to exchange veggies for startch as part of your moderate carbs. Personally I prefer fruit to starch but seems you have some issue with FODMAPS, so try starch instead. I can eat a few pieces of fruit a day and still be under 150.... you can do the same with potato.

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Hi davis25,
I reckon I know your problem, It's either neckhammers suggestion of the last 10 vanity pounds, your body has decided "yep this is it, im happy with my energy stores". this is called a set point.

Or it could be this; If you've been running a daily cal deficit and low carb as most do, the following has probably happened...
In the beginning most daily calorie deficits are good for fat loss, as our bodies can balance CICO by dipping into our fat stores to add the energy it needs to keep up with demand. But......

Over time our bodies gradually switch over to the CICO balancing method of down regulating output/ expenditure in direct proportion to our decreasing energy intake, the more we decrease the more our metabolisms slow down. The result of this is usually lethargy and no energy (as you describe), also your body starts lopping off less important processes that it doesn't need to ensure its individual survival like sex drive.

think of it this way; fat stores evolutionarily are a daily to weekly survival mechanism, giving us the energy to climb that tree for fruit or chase down the large game even tho we might have been without food (no external energy) for a couple of days.
Metabolic down regulation evolutionarily is a seasonal survival mechanism, meaning if an organism is "having a bad winter" it reduces it's energy expenditure to survive the poor season. If you run a daily calorie deficit for more than a month or 2 your body thinks it is having a "bad season". The ironic thing is even if we are having a bad season our body still holds onto some fat tissue as we still need non external energy to run down game etc at some point in the future.

The way to combat this is: To run a weekly calorie deficit instead of a daily one. Meaning on average over a week you eat less energy than you need, but on a daily basis you might eat more than cal requirements or less than cal requirements. Simple hey.
The beauty of this system is that you avoid your body thinking it is having a bad season but your still burning fat, and also your giving your "Fat burning systems" a rest a few days a week giving them little chance of becoming chronically stressed.

In regards to Carbs:

Your brain is a big hungry glucose demanding fiend as well as muscles (especially if srinting, heavy lifting etc etc). If your daily ingested carbs aren't up to this fueling task your body has to break down larger chain fatty acids into short chain sugars. I don't know, but I imagine this task takes effort on behalf of your metabolism, seeing as this is now a daily effort it is my belief that your sugar making systems get chronically stressed over time.
the solution? give em a rest. A few times a week increase your carb levels (in excess of daily requirements) so that your body get a rest from splitting carbon chains.

My advice would be to get your calorie intake system working first by doing no calorie deficit for a week or 2 then introduce a weekly average deficit. most people do this by IFing (although i believe alot of fasters go too hard with it). Once in that first week introduce a higher carb day, the next week try and eat more carbs on that one day, go by feel with this (regarding your bloating). After a month or so you you should be in a comfy zone where you can do a day or 2 good carb refeed a week.

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The key as I found out is to sort of randomly change things: go 2 days as you describe (provided that you eat enough, until you feel really full) but then, the next two days you skip breakfast and eat a big plate of steam-cooked potatoes with fried fish in butter in the evening. The next days, eat beef liver and veggies, add some mac nuts and fruits. And every other day, move your butt seriously (high carb days), while move slowly the other days, especially the high fat days.

Just vary like this, don't let your body relax. You got your first weight loss because you got out of an old metabolic balance. Just keep varying until you reach your weight goal. Don't hesitate to skip one or two meals and eat big within a coupld of hours in the evening. Note that carbs eaten in the evening are not having the same metabolic effect as carbs eaten in the morning. You can play with your insulin level in this way, by tweaking the timing of ingestion. But in the end, you can eat anything you want, as long as it's not toxic (primal whole foods mostly). We should in fact call this WOE the non-toxic diet

So, just to make sure: vary (foods, ingestion timing and amount, physical activity), sleep good and have fun with the people that count.

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150g carbs doesn't call for a low fat intake, probably still moderate (50-100g). I went from about 30-40g TOTAL carbs to now 200g. Why? Because I experienced similar but more severe and extreme symptoms to yours. I feel 1000x better and I'm still leaning out (do intense cardio a few times a week). I seriously recommend you increase your carbs.

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You can also try increasing salt intake; low carb especially in ketosis may need for salt. (Salt has been demonized as much as fat by nutritional establishment, and for most of us is just not harmful.)